Insomnia
by Fallen Ark Angel
Summary: Ever can't sleep. Which means Elfman can't sleep. Duh. - One-shot.


Insomnia

For as annoying as he was in most every way, Evergreen would admit, Elfman was a rather good listener.

This, of course, stemmed from the fact that he grew up with two sisters, both an elder and younger one, which made it a necessity for him to form such an ability. Boy, was it some ability. It was almost a skill all in itself.

He was able to handle her most tedious of stories. There were even times that she felt sorry for him, honestly. It was just…no guy had ever listened to her before. Not like that.

Elfman would sit there with her, after she got home from a training session with her teammates, and would listen to her rant about how Bickslow was just a big jerk and Freed never took her seriously. Or how all she wanted was Laxus' approval, but he never gave it.

Then there were the times that she argued with someone up at the guild, like Erza or someone. He'd have to hear about that for a good three days.

But he'd only sit there, on the couch, making the appropriate grunts of agreement or disapproval when he was supposed to, showing his outrage at the exact moments she wanted him to, and never, ever tried to interrupt her with an easy fix to whatever it was she was harping on.

He might be a big weeper, talk too much about being a man, and definitely offended her on accident half the time, but there would never be an easier person to talk to than Elfman Strauss.

Maybe that's why she eventually found impossible to just shut up around him. When they were alone, laying around her apartment, suddenly all the things she kept to herself just came spilling out. It wasn't even on purpose anymore. She wasn't testing the water or venting. It was actually not possible to keep her trap shut around the big oaf.

That alone was what led her into the…incident one night.

He was sleeping over and was mostly asleep while she only laid there next to him, trying hard join him in slumber, but it was eluding her for some reason. Which meant that he wasn't allowed to sleep because, well, that just wouldn't be fair.

"Elf?"

She got a slight grunt out of him. Shifting closer to the man as he was sleeping on his back, she rested a hand on his chest.

"You awake?"

Another grunt.

Laying her head against his chest then, she took to stroking his chest. Anything to keep him up.

"I can't sleep," she said after a moment. That one didn't get a grunt. Frowning, she repeated his name until he stirred a little.

"Yeah?" he whispered. "What's up?"

"I can't fall asleep," she told him softly. "So-"

"Ever-"

"It's not fair that you can if I can't."

"What sorta sense does that make?"

"Plenty."

Groaning slightly, he peeked open his eyes. "Did you wanna…do something? Like talk or something?"

"There's not really anything to talk about," she told him with a sigh. She should have just stopped there, looking back at it. But still, it was very true that she just could not keep from telling that man things. "Except…I just can't sleep. I keep dreaming about my parents and I-"

She stopped herself right there, trying to suck back in the words. But life doesn't work that way.

"Your parents, huh?" Elfman mumbled sleepily, his hand coming up then to cradle her head. She felt so small against him sometimes, almost tiny. It was…nice.

"Yeah," she whispered, swallowing. "It's stupid. Never mind."

"Mmmm." His eyes were shut and she knew he was trying hard to stay away. "My parents died. Long time ago now. Worked to the bone too."

"Yeah, I know."

"Mira hates to talk about it and Lisanna's memory's fuzzy," he added softly. "But I remember them."

"I remember mine too."

Why was she talking? Seriously, why? Maybe he had some sort of underlying power that made her tell the truth?

It'd make sense, because he was the only person that she felt the need to bare it all for, figuratively. And, well, literally too, fine, but he wasn't so special in that category.

"You never talk about them," he mumbled. "Are they…gone?"

"I dunno."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know, Elfman. That's what I mean."

"Oh."

"They… My mother left my father," she said slowly, closing her own eyes as she snuggled close to him. It was rare for her to be the affectionate one, so he knew she must be hurting. "When I was a baby. And I… I don't know what happened to my father."

"Did he leave you?"

"No," she sighed. "I left him."

"I thought that you've been with Fairy Tail since you were-"

"A child, yes."

"Then-"

"I ran away," she told him. She really wanted to stop talking. She didn't tell people these kinds of things. Because they didn't matter. At all. They were in the past. Dead. So far back that they only haunted her in her darkest moments.

"That had to have been scary," he said, peeking an eye open to look down at her. She didn't want to look at him though and kept hers closed. Besides, she had her glasses off. "Ever."

"You would know," she grumbled, trying to find a way back to her true self, to stop being so soft around him. She hated being soft. "You ran away too. Or were ran out, I guess."

"I had Mira to protect me," he reasoned. "She was quite the man."

"I bet."

"How old were you when you-"

"Young."

"Then see? We didn't leave until I was…eleven or so, I guess," he said. "I was already a man by then!"

"I never, once, thought of you as a man when we were children. Ever."

"Well, you were wrong."

"Elfman-"

"I just meant that you had to have been in a real bad spot," he said then, letting his hand fall so that he was no loner holding her. Ever didn't know why he did this and frowned at it, opening her eyes once more. "To know that young that you needed to get out of there."

"Yeah, well." She shifted then, so that she was on the bed, and not on him, snuggling up under his arm, to make him hold her. He accommodated this because, as previously stated, the times were rare that he got these honors. "He probably would have found me, if I didn't find Fairy Tail first."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Well, yeah," she said. "I was just alone and then… I saw it. The sign. Fairy Tail. And you know that I just…"

"You're the best fairy there is, Ever."

She didn't hate the smile that found its way onto her lips then. She just didn't enjoy it.

"But he was definitely looking for me," she took to insisting then."

"Okay."

"He was, Elfman. He had to be. He loved me. He just didn't…know how to take care of a little girl. That was all."

"I believe you."

"There's nothing to believe! It's the truth."

"I know."

"He loved me," she whispered, closing her eyes again as Elfman rolled onto his side, taking to stroking the back of her head gently. "Loves me, I mean. I know that he does. We're... It was just too hard for him. I mean, you couldn't raise a child alone, could you?"

"No," he whispered. "I couldn't."

"And I was always being bad," she kept up. "I was always trying to turn people to stone. Even when I didn't mean to, I would end up doing it. What was he supposed to do, Elfman? I couldn't go around doing that."

"I know."

"I was… I was the one that was wrong," she said softly. "Not him. And I shouldn't have left. Who was going to take care of him? I was…so selfish. It wasn't fair. I just left him all alone. He could hardly get up to go to work in the morning unless I forced him. And then all the time that he probably wasted on me, trying to find me. He probably still looks for me now. I know he does. He has to. Because…I was all he had. He said so. He meant it."

Elfman made a soft sound then, not a grunt or a sigh. Just a noise. To let her know that he was still awake and could still hear her.

"I can still remember him, the night I left," she said, turning to lay on her side as well and bury her face in his chest. It was so broad that it was easy to lose herself in it. "He was… He'd been drinking the whole… It was so late. And he had…soiled himself. He wanted me to run him a bath. I just wanted to go to sleep, Elfman. That's all. But he'd done so much for me, so he expected me to help him. I should have helped him. He was calling my name. My…real name."

"Your real-"

"'Evelyn', he called. 'Evie,' he yelled. But I didn't care. I was upset. And I just…I wanted to sleep." She didn't realize that she was sniffling or that there were tears, but she was and there were. She couldn't stop them even if she tried. She didn't. "But that made him so angry. And… He was going to hurt me. I just knew it."

"Did you…turn him into a statue or-"

"No," she sighed. "I never would do that. I just…ran. And ran. And ran. And when I got tired of running, I was so far from home that… I was in a forest. And I fell asleep, under a tree. And then I woke up and ran some more. And then I would sleep. And then I would run. Until I got here.

"I mean, I ran into problems. A…lot of problems. Not to mention, it took awhile. I came from far away. But then again, didn't we all?"

He only bowed his head though, resting his face in her brown tangles. "Do you ever want to…find out? About him?"

"No." Her voice was shaky then, something that she hated. "I… I don't ever want to see him again."

"Then you won't," Elfman decided then and there. She usually hated when he did that, decided something for the two of them, when she was clearly the one that was in charge of any and every situation she was involved in. "Ever, Ever."

He usually snickered when he did that, said that, but that time he was just so serious, so much like himself. She knew how others teased him or thought that he was all bombastic, but she saw through all of that. He was more than just talk. He was…the strongest man she knew.

Other than Laxus. That was just a given. But to her, Laxus wasn't a man. No, he was a god.

"So don't think about it anymore," Elfman whispered against the top of her head. "What I say goes, huh?"

"Yeah," she whispered, not opening her eyes then. The tears had stopped and she was just…tired. Ha. Funny how that works.

When she shifted away from him, back over to her side of their too tiny bed (they hardly had sides), he only stayed how he was, watching her.

"You feel better?"

"Mmmm."

Gently, he patted her head. "I love you, Ever."

He liked to say that a lot and, honestly, she liked to hear it. But she wouldn't say it back to him. Not typically.

Still, Elfman was forever the optimist and gave her a chance to return his feelings. And she did. Just not verbally.

"I gotta meet Lisanna in the morning for training," Elfman sighed as he shifted to lay on his other side, giving her his back. "So are you okay now? You asleep finally?"

She didn't want to talk to him anymore, which Elfman took as a good thing. Honestly, she was just glad he hadn't started crying or anything along with her. He must have been too tired because usually, a story like that could send him into hysterics for hours.

It was only once he was snoring once more that she let out a slight sigh, curling up to his back, as if for warmth.

"I love you too, Elf," she whispered because, well, like she said, it was just too hard to keep things from him. Even when he wasn't dying to know something, it somehow found its way crawling out of her mouth. And the things that he did want to know? Those came out when he was fast asleep.

Then, because she was still her, she only pressed a kiss to his back before bowing her head and trying to actually drift off once more. Not before whispering one last thing.

"You big idiot."

And with that, she fell asleep.

* * *

**Another half written one-shot that I figured I'd just finish. I'm trying to purge my files of incompletes, I guess. And you guys know I'm always up for adding some backstory into things. **


End file.
